The ultimate source for modules for theWord Bible program (everything free)

— Posted inBible, Software — 1 min read

I have quite a bit of traffic here from people looking for modules for theWord. TheWord is an excellent free Bible program that I strongly recommend. It has a learning curve, but stick with it and you will be rewarded, and the program can be used at a simple level right away. It’s under active development and there is a nice user support forum where the author is active.

So by all means you can do a search here for theword as a tag, or Bible Software as a category, to find several sources of free modules. But if you want to go directly to the largest repository there is, see David Cox’s site, http://www.twmodules.com. I haven’t counted, but there has to be  over a thousand free ebooks there, enough reading to drive you batty if you let it. Seriously, this is a great resource.

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Keep praying for Asia Bibi

— Posted inChristianity, current events, Persecution — 3 min read

This story comes through openheaven.org. You may be aware of this Christian Pakistani woman who was accused of blasphemy, a capital crime under Islam, on phony charges and has been held  in jail interminably. Just a tiny crack has appeared in the case.

The news has been so dark lately that it is easy to wonder what one little case like this can do, even if we do win. But it is essential that we fight the battle when and where we can. That’s the only way we’ll ever make progress. Let’s do it not only for Asia Bibi, but for the many who don’t have even the slim chance she does.

Here’s a site with the latest news, and where you can join in writing a letter of encouragement to Asia: http://incontext.webs.com/asiabibi.htm.

And here’s one where you can engage in activism: http://campaigns.csi-usa.org/index.php?id=FreeAsia.

Story follows.

Pakistan: Asia Bibi’s accuser is said to have admitted that his charges are phony

By Dan Wooding
Founder of ASSIST Ministries

LAHORE, PAKISTAN (ANS) — The case of Asia Bibi, the Pakistan Christian mother-of-five who was sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy, has taken an extraordinary turn.

According to a story monitored by the ASSIST News Service, Qari Salam, who accused Bibi of blasphemy charges, which resulted in a jail sentence and possible hanging, is reported to have “ostensibly” regreted filing a blasphemy charge against the impoverished Christian woman.

“The source of his guilt – realization that the case was not based on facts but on hyped religious emotions and personal bias of some village women, including his wife,” said the story posted at: http://www.topix.com/forum/religion/islam/T72AF1K9C8RL3C6TG

Bibi has been languishing in Sheikhupura jail since a sessions court gave her a death sentence for insulting Prophet Muhammad.

Support from London

Qari, according to some of his close friends, was now thinking of not pursuing the case anymore and expressed his desire to some of his friends, only to find himself in a difficult situation when activists of an Islamic religious organization “convinced” him not to change his mind.

“We will chase her through hell . don’t worry about the money, hiring best lawyers,” Salam told The Express Tribune, quoting the son of Khatm-e-Nabuwat’s London chapter’s leader.

The leader’s son flew in to Nankana from London after hearing that Salam might not go to Lahore High Court (LHC) when the review petition against Asia’s conviction is taken up.

Source: (ANS) www.assistnews.net

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A most illiberal decree

— Posted inChristianity, Culture and Society, current events — 4 min read

The latest depredation of the Obama administration involves a health care regulation that will force all medical insurance plans to provide full coverage for drugs and procedures which can take the life of an already-conceived human being. This is exactly what we warned the nation about during the great healthcare debate a year and a half ago, and when Bart Stupak and other “pro-life Democrats” made their idiotic deal with the devil. Now it is coming to pass, though predictably, it is slipping through incrementally.

Funny how the implementation date for the new regulation has been pushed back one year, from August of ’12 to August of ’13. That just so happens to delay the issue until after the coming presidential election. Funny.

If Obama gets his way, there will be no refuge from the complete control of health care by the government. And that means control by humanists. The conscience of Christians will not be respected, as we plainly see. If you want to stay in business or keep your job, you will comply.

It’s hard to know what to say. If the problem were merely Obama, it would be easy to fix. But as the Psalms ask, if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? It was the people who placed Obama in the highest office in the land. It was the media which hypnotized them, it was the government schools which dumbed them down. It was Big Labor which appealed to their selfishness. But ultimately it was the people who fell for the load of malarkey.

It’s easy to get discouraged by the state of the nation. I’ve never seen it so depraved and profane. All the warnings the moralists gave us were true, and the consequences of our decisions have come upon us. Unless somehow we can pull a rabbit out of the political hat, we are going to see the nation pull further and further away from us.

That’s why it is essential that each one of us does not run out of lamp oil. You will recall that according to the parable of the ten virgins, five wise virgins went back and got oil for their lamps, just in case the expected bridegroom was delayed. But five foolish virgins instead slept. When the bridegroom arrived, the wise virgins had enough oil, but the foolish did not.

If our faith rests on the good graces of the United States of America, we’re going to be in trouble. While that may have worked well for several hundred years, it doesn’t seem to be so any longer. We need to dig down deeper than that.

The political realm is a valid place to fight the good fight, and I hope more people do. But the spiritual realm is really where the action is. If you look at the much-quoted 2Chron 7.14:

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

You see that the verse refers not to the electorate, but to the people of God. It all hinges on us, and on our faithfulness. We are the ones who need to humble ourselves, pray, seek the Lord’s face, and yes, to turn from our wicked ways.

Simply put, the church needs to be the church as Jesus intended it to be. Each one of us needs to seek the Lord’s will for our lives, and conform ourselves to His wonderful character. If this happens as a grassroots movement, it becomes a revival. And as it gains steam the church gains the power to bear witness to the truth and love of God. We gain the power to love the unlovely – those who have fallen to the schemes of satan and this world. This is a powerful, life-changing dynamic. I found in my own life that it was when Jesus stuck by me when all others had left, when even He should have left according to my own calculations, that He won my heart forever. And it can be the same for the hurting people today, if the church will reach out to them in their difficulties.

I’m not happy watching this nation sink into the swamp. The humanism, the political correctness, and the immorality are literally killing us. I hope something can be done about it, and I will do whatever I can. But I have learned that my main focus must be the person of Jesus and the kingdom of God. Unless we see to that, there is no hope of saving the nation.

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The ugliness begins

— Posted inCulture and Society, exhortation — 5 min read

One very ugly story today in the Guardian. It’s ugly in two ways: first, for the story that is told, and second, for the way that story is told.

The story is that minorities are alleging a massive attempt to deprive them of the vote. The way it’s told is that the leftist Guardian first trumps up the allegations with hyperbolic rhetoric, assuming they are all true, and then gives only a thin gruel of substantiation at the end, after the reader already has been programmed. Classic manipulation of public opinion.

You will recall that certain political elements – read, Democrats catering to their special interest groups – have consistently resisted commonsense attempts to protect the integrity of the vote in America. You can hardly make a large purchase without a corroborating photo ID, but somehow requiring this level of validation is construed as being antithetical to our personal freedoms when used to prevent voting fraud.

So too, there has been a long history of denial of voting rights to those convicted of a felony crime. We may argue that the law should be made more flexible, but we can hardly deny that there is some basis in logic to keep those of poor character out of the voting booth.

We are in great danger of losing all confidence in our electoral system. And if that happens, then rioting begins. From buying off voters with amenities in Chicago – the city of “vote early and often” where Barack Obama learned down and dirty machine politics, to deceased voters somehow continuing to exercise the franchise, to the fraudulent registration lists of ACORN doing their work on the public dime in the name of voter participation, vote fraud has increasingly become an endemic part of the American fabric. It is a cancer eating away at the public trust, until now we barely have any.

But evidently we haven’t seen anything yet. Remember the painfully divisive aftermath to the election of 2000, when Al Gore would not let go? That will be nothing compared to the ugly racial rhetoric that’s ahead. It will be impossible to level any criticism of Barack Obama without being branded racist. I know this will happen because it already has been happening. It has happened to me, and it has probably happened to you as well.

If you search the pages of this blog you will see where I once pleaded that we inaugurate Allan West immediately. But that won’t count to exonerate me of racism because West, who is Black, is a conservative. One is considered Black by liberals only if he is liberal and accordingly endorses racial identity politics.

It’s been a great nation. We’ve had quite a run. But as Lincoln (and Jesus) warned, divided we cannot stand. Here we have identity groups going outside the country to bring external force to bear on it in order to implement their own agenda. It is widely believe that even Obama himself, the hope and change guy himself (even there I wanted to say “boy”, as I normally would colloquially do, without regard to the race of the person, but I flinched because of our supercharged racial atmosphere), is going to run an unprecedentedly divisive campaign, scorching earth in order to preserve his sinecure. This is nothing less than the potential demise of the nation, and immanently so.

While this is sad, and we should do all we can to prevent it, it presents an opportunity for the church. Everything that can be shaken will be shaken, and shaken we are. But this is the time to rise up and bear witness to Christ. Our power is not rooted in politics, but in the Spirit. So many people are needy, and not just financially. Families are falling apart. The world is an increasingly dangerous and evil place. Even the heralded Arab Spring is being shown to have only cleared the way for Islam to rear its ugly head. Real hope is a scarce commodity indeed. People need strength to face their challenges and live their lives.

At the same time, however, the church itself continues to be shaken, so much so that we wonder how we will be strong.  There is only one answer: we must abide in the secret place of the Most High, the place of immunity. From that place of rest we will be refreshed, and the Lord’s power will be perfected in us.

Do not fret at the evil around us. The evil one is certainly having a measure of success now, but his day will come. God has not abandoned us. His hand weaves its way through history, and through our circumstances, working all things to our good (Romans 8.28). He will not be thwarted.

These are difficult times, but those who know their God will be strong and do exploits (Daniel 11.32). let’s join together in prayer and keep one another strong. Christ is in our midst.

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The state of our presidential politics

— Posted inChristianity, Culture and Society, current events — 4 min read

I tuned in for no more than one minute of the Republican presidential debate this Tuesday, before turning it off in disgust. The bickering and infighting had reached the level of a circular firing squad. Enough.

I’m going to make some rather plain statements here, for better or worse.

First, the infighting began many weeks ago when Bachmann’s main man, Ed Rollins, began a low-blow attack on Bachmann’s fellow Minnesotan Tim Pawlenty. I predicted that if she did not disavow Rollins’ attack, she would pay a steep price. She didn’t,  kept up the negative campaigning, and has disqualified herself.

There is a time for going negative. It is not in the primary season, especially when defeating Obama is so important. Doing it now smacks of desperation and selfish ambition. This is a time for clear articulation of vision.

Perry’s entrance to the race was met with great anticipation. Unfortunately, he has been incoherent on principle and simply horrendous in debate. The electorate is not going to put another inarticulate Texan in office, period. He had a golden opportunity, but seems not to have prepared himself adequately.

For a while, Romney was the only one to be, in the words of Jake Tapper, running a general election campaign. He kept his eyes on the issues and on defeating Obama, and doing so increasingly made him look presidential. But now even his practiced unflappability has worn thin, and he is going on the attack. That one minute of the debate I tuned into on Tuesday happened to be an intense argument between him and Perry. It’s doubtful that either survived it in the eyes of independents looking in.

And then there is Herman Cain, the currently rising star. I like Cain. He’s generally on the right side of things, and has kept himself above the fray. I want someone in office who understands business. Unfortunately, however, Cain is not up to the demands of the presidency. He has made several statements that he quickly walked back on, to the point of either rank hypocrisy or incoherence, or both. He seems to approach things with a businessman’s practicality, which is good, but without much depth of principle, thinking or articulation, which is not. He would not survive a campaign against Obama.

That leaves one man standing. To my own surprise, and not terribly happily so, I am increasingly thinking that the one person who has held himself above the mud-wrestling, who has consistently projected an articulate positive vision, and who is capable of going head-to-head against Obama, is Newt Gingrich. I’m not happy about that because I am well aware of the political baggage he carries – regarding global warming, ethanol subsidies, blinking during the government shutdown crisis under Clinton, etc. – not to mention his personal baggage, which no doubt would hurt his chances as well. I believe Gingrich would cut Obama to ribbons in any debate format, but the format Gingrich is proposing – six unmoderated three-hour head-to-heads, with only a timekeeper – would be historic. In my view, this is a tremendous idea befitting the critical issues we face.

And so it comes down to imperfect choices. There is no guarantee that once in office, Gingrich wouldn’t compromise himself yet again, or flinch at a critical point in the face of battle. Yet he seems to be the only hope of restoring this nation at this point.

All this leads me to the scripture that warns us not to place our trust in princes, or in the sons of men. Ultimately, my trust is in the Lord alone – not man, not nations. I’ve seen that our politics, and all our institutions for that matter, are corrupt to the core. Our future, and the future of the whole world, is in the Lord’s very capable hands. Yet still, common sense dictates that, beyond praying, we should do what we can in the human realm to preserve the good that remains.

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The Gospel according to Thor

— Posted inCulture and Society, Review, tweet — 6 min read

As a kid I was a comic book junkie. I started out with Superman and Batman, and couldn’t get enough. When my mother held me to three comics per week, that’s what I brought home each Sunday – plus a couple more hidden under my shirt. As I progressed through my teens, I did taper off, but there were two heroes who were very hard to say goodbye to: Thor and Green Lantern.

I was a little excited earlier this year when I heard that movies of both my old heroes, Thor and Green Lantern, were coming out this year. I generally don’t go to the theater, and I finally got around to renting the Thor DVD this weekend. So this review might be old hat to you. And if you haven’t seen the movie yet, be aware this will contain some serious spoilers.

One thing is preeminently clear from watching this movie: its creative principals are well-conversant with the Bible story. The parallels between Thor and Christ are pervasive, and other characters also line up closely with biblical persons.

It’s ironic that even as special effects have gotten more and more spectacular, they are losing their novelty and ability to hold the viewer’s interest. Gone are the days when effects could carry a film. A story will sink or swim based only on the old sure foundation of plot and character development. And so, though the effects in Thor are pretty good, they fade into the background. The real story is the spiritual development of the hero.

Thor is a brash young man destined for the throne. His father, king Odin, is old and wise and good. In his swagger, Thor retaliates for a wrong done to his kingdom, and unleashes a deadly war upon his people. For violating his fealty to the king, Thor is stripped not only of his power, which is embodied in his hammer, but of his position as heir to the throne as well. And he is cast out of his own realm and banished to earth, to live his life as a mortal.

The hammer follows him to Earth, however, and embeds itself in a rock. Thor immediately plots how to get to it and reclaim it. The moment finally comes when it is in his grasp. He smiles as he reaches out for it, tasting the power that will soon be his again. But Thor’s father had pronounced an oath over the hammer, whereby it could only be wielded by one who is worthy of its power. In what Thor thought would be his moment of triumph, he cannot free the hammer, try as he may. He cries what sounds like the death roar of a mighty lion, and falls to his knees, defeated.

If that weren’t bad enough, now taken captive, Thor is visited by his younger brother, Loki. Loki informs him that his father is dead. Thor’s foolishness and banishment has caused it, and their mother has decreed that Thor may never return. All of these are lies. Loki represents the satan figure in the story, who enviously rebels in order to rule, but his motives seem more confused than those of his biblical counterpart, in that he somehow thinks he is trying to please his father.

Once a mighty wild stallion, Thor now is broken. In tears, he expresses touching remorse for his actions and the woe they have brought on his loved ones. It was here that we began to see one aspect of the Christ story in action. I thought of the pain of the Cross, where everything went wrong for the Lord Jesus; where He suffered for sins He did not commit, and it seemed that even His Father had rejected Him. Thor’s loss at this point is complete.

Thor is now a changed man. He begins to adapt to his new mortal life by serving others in small ways, such as waiting tables, and he does so with servanthood joy. Finally, when Loki sends a robot to Earth to kill Thor and everyone else, Thor walks up to the machine and offers himself without resistance, as long as everyone else will be left to live. The robot takes him up on the offer – and kills him.

This is deep Gospel territory. What came to mind at this point were Michael Card’s “El Shaddai” lyrics, Your most awesome work was done, through the frailty of Your Son. Jesus laid aside the power and immortality of divinity in order to become a man and suffer like us, for us. He wrested the kingdom back from satan not by means of indomitable power, but by reestablishing the legal right through the humble obedience of self-sacrificial love. Thor’s death was a moving moment. (The film, directed by the Shakespearian, Richard Brannagh, had a noble feel almost throughout.)

But as Thor’s mother says at one point, there is a reason for everything the king does. Odin sent Thor into banishment to break his pride, and as soon as Thor dies, the father’s oath over the hammer is invoked. The hammer breaks loose from the rock it is embedded in, and flies into Thor’s hand. Thor is raised from death, and is restored to his former position and power. This, of course, is a picture of the resurrection. Thor goes on to stop the war he had triggered between kingdoms, and he does so sacrificially again, at the cost of destroying the way back to Earth, cutting him off from the woman he has come to love.

At the movie’s end, Thor and his father are reconciled. Thor is humble and aware of his need for wisdom, and he recognizes its rich endowment in his father.

I found the plot details and the dialog a bit hard to follow the first time through, but one advantage of the DVD is the ability to watch the film again on the cheap. The second time was much richer for being able to connect more of the dots. This movie is a winner at several levels, particularly the spiritual. That compliment comes from one who generally no longer bothers with most movies because of their low redeeming value.

If you enjoy seeing the Gospel story played out in different ways, and are looking for ways to relate it to those in our culture who are not conversant with the Bible, the movie Thor might well be something you would be interested in.

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pALGwFZi_48]

Joel Osteen

— Posted inChurch, Prayer, tweet — 3 min read

I have inside word that Joel Osteen is under stress. It seems a woman has been stalking him in one manner or another. While precautions have been taken, these things can take their toll. Even Jesus found it necessary – and increasingly difficult – to escape physical jeopardy, until He willingly accepted it when it was His time to go to the cross. We need to be praying for Joel, and all the church’s leaders.

I wish the body had a broader perspective toward ministers such as Joel. Joel is not perfect. I don’t go to him when I want a catechism answer. But there was a time in my life when I did go to him for encouragement, and to be reminded of the love of God. In fact, he was the only TV preacher I could listen to for a season.

Yet because he doesn’t harp on sin week in and week out, some accuse him of distorting the Gospel. They don’t understand that when Joel exhorts us to have a better attitude, or exercise faith that God is working on our behalf and will bring good out of difficult circumstances, it is implicit that our sinful attitudes must change and we must draw near to God.

It also escapes the understanding of some that the Gospel is about more than just initial salvation. Salvation is an ongoing process by which we are continually sanctified – “from glory to glory” is the way the Bible puts it – and we need encouragement and exhortation to be walking according to the fullness of our heritage in Christ. Joel is a modern day “bar Nabus” (son of encouragement), bringing us that uplifting word.

There’s also one other thing that some don’t realize. A great portion of the world’s people live trapped in dark lands where the love of God is suppressed. Joel’s message of love is beamed into those lands via satellite and the Internet. Imagine you have been born into a repressive cultural milieu, and live in terror of arbitrary and legalistic religion. Now you hear of a God who acts on our behalf from selfless love. You even see the minister quite frequently getting emotional talking about Him. What amazing evangelistic power this can have. God loves these souls, and we need to reach them with that love.

As I said, Joel is not perfect. But he has been faithful with the light he’s been given. He helped me immensely during a season of my life, and for that I will always be grateful and bless him. We need to pray for our leaders. Until the Body comes together in the unity of faith and love, we will suffer together with a lack of power.

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“Birth control” –and abortion – for all, underwritten by all, like it or not

— Posted inChurch, Culture and Society, tweet — 4 min read

In the latest depredation by the Obama administration, Health and Human Services is proposing radical new regulations that would require private insurers – even those covering religious institutions such as churches, schools and hospitals – to fund contraceptive services with no charge or co-pay to the consumer. This ultimately forces the insurance pool to pay for these services, even when they offend the conscience of a good part of the people in that pool. Think of that when you see your skyrocketing insurance tab.

Catholics, of course, are enjoined against even simple contraception. But a little-known fact about some of the forms of contraception, in particular the ones using hormone manipulation, such as the Pill, in that they work by means of a three-stage modality. They first attempt to keep the egg from being released, and then to keep the sperm from reaching the egg, and finally, if a sperm and egg do join together, the pill makes the uterine lining inhospitable for implantation.

That is to say, that if the first two methods fail, the Pill Acts as an abortifacient.

So now, by federal decree, it will be illegal for insurance companies and medical practitioners to withhold services they find morally abhorent, and the people using them won’t have to pay a nickel for them. But the public – you and I – will.

This is the way it always is with the Left. They use the power of the state to cover over issues of individual morality, and they do it at the expense of those who do abide by moral scruples.

It’s interesting to see how Obama announced this scheme at a fundraiser:

“No longer can insurance companies discriminate against women just because you guys are the ones who have to give birth.”

At this point, a member of a laughing audience shouted out: “Darn right!”

“Darn tooting,” Obama answered back—to laughter. “They have to cover things like mammograms and contraception as preventive care, no more out-of-pocket costs.”

Obama continues to think of giving birth as a negative. When he was running for the presidency three years ago, he said that if one of his daughters got pregnant, he would not want to “punish” her by making her give birth.

Obama’s worldview was obvious to many back in ’08, and could have been to all, because the facts were out there for ready discovery should anyone have cared enough to look. But the media was in the tank for Obama and covered for him, and the people followed en masse. Since then, despite incontrovertible revelations about serious corruption within the “reproductive services” industry, Obama has stood steadfastly behind it, vigorously protecting the hundreds of millions of public dollars Planned Parenthood extracts from the American taxpayer each year.

It would be too much to expect much else from the general public at this point, but one wonders when the religious left will wake up, if ever.

It’s quite a neat scheme, really – use the power of our own government and our own money to subvert the values we believe in. And they are doing a spectacular job of it.

In the face of this, the temptation is to look to the political realm for solutions. The political realm is necessary and has its place, of course, but by itself it is wholly inadequate. Obama’s Republican challengers – those who are running, and those who are not, has been an keen object lesson in the futility of trusting in princes. The battle is the Lord’s, and if our victory is to be real, it must be won in such a way that the glory is His alone. That is why the real action in this war is the battle of faith. There isn’t a leader that can lead, or a Constitution that can protect, unless this nation exalts the Lord as God, in the daily lives of its people and in its institutions. Unless we humble ourselves before Him, we will watch every advantage, every liberty, all truth and goodness, slip away despite our best efforts.

The empty promises of statists avail nothing but more bondage. They suck the people in with their handouts, but over the long term they rob their vitality in the bargain, and make them dependant on further handouts.

It’s time for America to disavow its unwise dependence on man, and to avow again its utter reliance on the good and abundant hand of the Almighty. Let the church arise!

Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. –Hos 6.1-2

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Pulpits aflame with righteousness

— Posted inChurch, Faith — 2 min read

I spent some time last week continuing to follow the story of the death of David Wilkerson, and considering what a giant legacy he has left the church. I went back and watched the film version of The Cross And The Switchblade, which is available on YouTube. It’s a great story, but the movie is dated and suffers from a mediocre screenplay. Of course the film has its moments, since it is about Jesus, but the story is worthy of a full-blown quality remake, and I hope that someday soon it gets it.

You also can view a nice video tribute to Brother Dave here.

During my stay at Times Square Church years ago, I often was reminded of the famous saying attributed to de Tocqueville:

I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers – and it was not there . . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce – and it was not there . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution – and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.

And I began to wonder how TSC was faring now, since Wilkerson retired. So I began scouring for sermons of the current senior pastor, Carter Conlon. The result has been amazing. The pulpit of TSC is still aflame with righteousness. Watching the sermons brought me right back to being there again. It’s nice to see the work Brother Dave began continue to give to the Body of Christ.

I’m going to embed two sermons here. The first one is perhaps the greatest sermon I have ever heard. It dramatically delineates the role of the law in the Christian life, and the related necessity of dying to self before we can live to Christ. The second is an powerful exhortation to believe God for fruitfulness.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtHj9waszDo]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoA-0C7-sHc&NR=1]

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David Wilkerson, RIP

— Posted inChurch, Culture and Society — 4 min read

Dave influenced a lot of people, including me. When he came out with The Cross and the Switchblade, it was the first time that I heard of the Cross’s power to change lives here and now, and not merely provide for the hereafter, as I had been taught. When I later reached the crisis in my life that would deliver me on God’s doorstep, that message became essential to my survival.

Regain your health

— Posted inCulture and Society — 4 min read

Eight years ago I undertook a quest to restore my health. I saw pictures of myself at my sister’s funeral, and they did not reflect anyone I wanted myself to be. Over the years I had steadily put on weight and lost energy. It was time to do something about it.

I tried every diet under the sun, and massive exercise. And I studied up on nutrition. I made plenty of mistakes, but I made progress. Eventually I settled in at moderate exercise and a quality weight loss of 43 pounds. I looked great and felt great.

But sadly, some years after my high point I slipped back, and now I am about 20 lbs more than I want to be. I have returned to the constant evening energy cravings that had been my downfall, and my energy levels, stamina and disease resistance are much lower than I need them to be.

This week I came across an outstanding presentation that provided me with the much-need reminder of what the basic problem is in my diet, and the diets of most people in the West. It is so powerful and so clear that I am on my third viewing of it already, and it immediately led me to make the necessary adjustments for regaining my health.

Contrary to what most people believe, those adjustments are not difficult. Essentially, they consist in returning to the diet that sustained life for all the centuries of human existence prior to the last, when huge commercial interests and attendant politics took over the food industry.

Specifically, the changes involve eliminating processed sugar, increasing fiber intake, and bringing undamaged fat intake back up to where it should be.

The compelling video I’m going to post below will give the details, but essentially, decades ago, when America went on its errant low-fat craze in order to facilitate cardiac health, it made up for the lack of satiety by increasing the processed sugars, fructose and sucrose. At the same time, fiber levels went way down, as processed food became an important part of our diet. Fiber is taken out of processed food because it interferes with processing and storage. And food processors fell in love with the cheaper and highly stable trans-fats that completed this evil trinity’s assault on our health.

This was an absolute disaster, as these processed sugars are metabolized completely differently than normal glucose, and cut off the satiety mechanism that tells the brain you’ve had enough to eat. At the same time they ironically jack up blood lipids. So in effect, we put ourselves on a high-consumption, high-fat diet. Not only have we done nothing for cardiac health, we have set off a nuclear explosion of obesity, diabetes, and other degenerative diseases, all of them with overtones of cancer.

Please, give this video a careful viewing. The authorities whose job it is to protect us have done a horrendous job. They are shot through with political and commercial interests, and public health is about the last thing on their minds. People at this point are so confused they don’t know what to eat. They live in constant apprehension of doing something nutritionally wrong, yet still they gain weight. Does this seem reasonable? Or the way, even in a fallen world, that God designed a normal life to be led? No, instead, the simple truth is that the deck has been stacked against us, and there is no way to win the game according to house rules.

It is down to this: if you want to be healthy, you must take it on yourself. You must educate yourself, and you must be willing to abandon the cultural norms that have been thrust upon us. Our culture has become toxic not only morally and spiritually, but physically as well. The corruption in our society is affecting every level of our existence. It is time to fight back, intelligently.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM]

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Discipleship: time for a complete personal reevaluation

— Posted inChurch — 5 min read

Recently I combed carefully through the Book of Acts again, looking for what the Holy Spirit might have for me there. My special interest was in ecclesiology, but what really motivated me was to discover what made the early church so different from us today.

Just twenty years or so after the Ascension of Jesus, the church, by the testimony of a credible neutral, if not hostile, witness, had “turned the world upside down”. Now, if that describes your ecclesial experience, then a) I’m happy for you, and b) please contact me with information about how I can join your movement. Because, as for me, I see the church as compromised, disjointed and struggling. All that is ok, provided we’re moving in the right direction, but I wonder.

And so I began searching Acts once again to see what it was in the church DNA that we have lost. Before long, I came upon a curious little thing that writer Luke kept repeating. On the missionary journeys with Paul, he kept referring to the believers as “disciples”.

When I first noticed this, I easily dismissed it as a reference to the small band of missionaries that accompanied Paul. Paul’s MO was this: he typically would enter a town, preach Jesus in the synagogue, win converts, get thrown out of the synagogue, and then start a separate house church in the town, composed of both Jewish and Gentile believers in Christ. Mere days or short weeks later, Paul and his band were gone, often forced out by persecution, and headed for the next town.

So I figured that Luke’s use of the term “disciples” couldn’t possible refer to the brand new Christians. They were mere babies in the faith; they could only handle milk, not meat. So I reasoned.

But as I read on, I came across solid evidence that those new converts to the Lord were exactly whom Luke was referencing as disciples. And with that understanding, my eyes were opened to the difference between the church in the Book of Acts and the current state of the church in the West.

Paul and his band did not preach a cultural Christianity, or mere morals. They preached total consecration to the Savior and to His church. Baptism was a symbol of dying to Christ, of leaving all the things of the previous life behind. It was not to be entered into lightly. And the persecution that continually dogged Paul was vivid evidence to any prospective new believer that if he were to accept Christ, he could expect the same in his own life.

Consider the power the church would have to change lives and impact the nations, if we were to shed our preoccupation with loveless doctrinal minutia and structures, and focus on radical obedience to the Holy Spirit; if we were to abandon materialism and individualism and dedicate ourselves to each other. This is the power the nascent church wielded, that caused it to thrive in a hostile environment.

I’ve heard that Chinese church leaders continue to ask the West to send more bibles, but not to send popular Western Christian books. Their greatest fear is not persecution, under which they have thrived for decades, very similarly to the church’s experience in the Book of Acts, it is becoming infected with self-centered consumerism under the flag of religion.

And so, I concluded that the key to awakening the church lies in discipleship. Funny, that’s exactly what Jesus indicated as He left this earth:

Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” -Matt 28:18-20

We need to get back to basics. And it needs to happen now, in you and in me. The world is ripe for a final revival unlike anything it’s ever seen.

Not everyone is going to be willing to become a disciple. The cost is too great. Jesus understood that from the start. The Sermon on the Mount is universally acknowledged to be the greatest concentrated spiritual teaching in history, but look at how it happened:

When He saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. -Matt 5:1

Jesus never trusted crowds. Here he drew himself away from the crowds, to a remote place. Only those people who were willing to climb the mountain after Him would hear his intimate disclosure of Kingdom principles. The rest remained down below, awaiting their next “blessing”.

Another time, Jesus was walking on a road, with large crowds following. He turned abruptly and proclaimed:

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters — yes, and even his own life — he cannot be My disciple.

Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. -Luke 14:26-27

Jesus purposely thinned the crowds. He would rather have a few who are serious than many who are just going along for the ride.

Yesterday I came across this video by Andrew Strom that speaks to the church’s need to recapture discipleship. Because these things have been reverberating in me lately, I found it riveting. I believe you will too. The sermon begins at around 11 minutes in.

Be blessed,
p.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPZhoxNlEiQ&feature=player_embedded]

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The Muslim Street

— Posted inend times, Persecution — 3 min read

I’d like you to go to UNDispatch and read an initial insider reaction to the atrocity in Afghanistan yesterday. The Islamic aspect of the massacre is non-existent, of course (after all, this is the UN), but the conclusion is still germane: it is time for the UN to leave Afghanistan.

Because a pastor in Florida burned a Koran, Imams in the Afghan city, Mazar-i-Sharif, chosen by the UN for a headquarters because of its “peacefulness”, preached violence against the “Crusaders”, and after their Mosque services rode around in cars using bullhorns to continue to inflame a growing mob.

That mob, which some have estimated to have been 20,000 strong, broke through the barriers to the UN compound. Because they were simply unarmed citizens and not Taliban extremists, the UN force did not fire on them. For their restraint, the guards were murdered, and then their arms were used to hunt down others in the compound, who were in turn brutally murdered in cold blood.

This is the Muslim concept of protest, directly led by religious leaders, on display for the entire world to observe.

This is the Muslim concept of moral equivalence: you burn the pages of a book, we slaughter you.

And it gets worse. Harman Karzai, the Afghan president, himself set the stage for the massacre by using the Koran burning incident to agitate the Afghanis. Just as in Pakistan and all the other heavily Muslim nations, riling up the Islamic base is good politics for regimes lacking real leadership credentials.

One of the provisos of the Christian principles of Just War is that for a war to be justifiable there must be a  reasonable chance of success (or that the situation is so bad that the alternative, failure, must be less acceptable than death itself). Afghanistan is sinking back into tribal and Islamic quicksand. It will take real leadership to pull her out, and more than merely in the military realm. It will take moral leadership, something the Muslim clerics clearly do not have a clue about. Harman Karzai is incapable of that leadership, and so is Barack Obama. Until something changes, we are wasting precious blood and treasure.

Meanwhile, we must remember that there are souls trapped within this horrendous cycle of ignorance and evil. Souls that Jesus loves and died for. I think of the young woman on the cover of Time, whose nose and ears were cut off by her arranged husband who grew tired of her. And she is only one of countless victims of a culture that turns men into animals.

Since the powers of this world are no longer even treading water, I would like to submit that the real war in Afghanistan, the one that matters, is being fought by intercessors, in their prayers and, for some, their acts of obedience. The world’s rulers are increasingly out of ideas, and simply do not have a clue about what to do. They are just trying to keep a semblance of order on deck, as the Titanic sinks down.

We have been warned that this would happen, so this is only further confirmation of the truth of the Scriptures. Our redemption draweth nigh, but until then we have work to do in God.

God bless you, and God bless the innocents that are suffering.

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God’s current massive creative work

— Posted inend times, exhortation, Spiritual Growth — 15 min read

Dear friends,

I’ve been silent for a while, but I wanted to pass these two pieces from openheaven on to you.

God is doing something massive in these last days. The spiritual warfare has been intense, but the tide is turning, and through it the Lord is raising up a people who will be fit to share His very throne with Him, to partake in the Divine nature itself, and to rule and reign with His delegated authority.[1]

Everything that can be shaken will be shaken, we have been warned, and we are seeing this before our very eyes, virtually on a daily basis. Day by day the greatest country the world has ever seen is being brought lower and lower by the weight of its own corruption. Natural disasters worldwide are on the dramatic increase. There currently is a ray of hope in the Arab nations, but this can, and probably will, turn toward the dark side in an instant, setting up a true end-times scenario with respect to Jerusalem. The nations, it is abundantly clear by now, have absolutely no answers. They can only offer photo-ops and smooth oratory. But satan does not care how white their teeth are, and he does not bow before polished oratory.

Jesus told us that when we see the signs of last-days anguish, we are not to despair, but rather to look up to our soon-coming redemption. Even though we are going through a crucifixion now, the eye of faith not only can see the victory coming, it can see the Bride being prepared by the very fiery trial besetting us.

And so I’m going to pass on these two articles from openheaven.com, which I think speak powerfully of the creative work the Lord is doing in the church at this very moment. Openheaven has an email list that sends out roughly weekly, containing such articles and also a useful summary of Christian-related news.

Be blessed,
Paul

[1] For more on the incredibly powerful theme of our being outfitted for glory, and the power inherent in our prayers, see my review here of Billheimer’s book, Destined For the Throne.

1. Kingdom Impact

By Ron McGatlin

Trading Our Limitations for His Supernatural Life

Becoming One Spirit with Christ Jesus is no small matter. It is beyond our imagination – far greater than we could ask or think. It has not entered into the hearts or minds of natural man’s understanding. However, in this new season of emerging kingdom, God is revealing it to us by His Spirit.

In a moment of time we can be transformed by the Holy Spirit – changed in the twinkling of an eye by the powerful impact of the in breaking kingdom of God in the Holy Spirit. This is new, and we have not come this way before. Christ, by His Spirit, indwelling our spirit-being is transforming our weak spirit into His powerful Spirit that is HOLY HOLY HOLY.

No more mixture and no more falling back. What we could not do, Christ in us will do as we truly become one with Him. We no longer live but He lives His pure, holy life of love, power and wisdom where we once lived.

Yes, there may have been many years of “here a little and there a little” – years of three steps forward and two steps back – years of tearing down our foolish self-focused pride filled lives – years of our erecting our own castles in our own kingdoms – deceiving ourselves with religious platitudes from a god of our own making. We built precept upon precept and line upon line to be snared in our own works only to fall backward and be broken.

Isa 28:13: But the word of the LORD was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little,” That they might go and fall backward, and be broken And snared and caught.

In the passing church emphasis age we, for the most part, did not experience the kingdom impacting us, changing us in the twinkling of an eye. In this new kingdom emphasis age things are not as they were.

Judgment is coming swiftly to chasten and turn believers toward the now visible kingdom and away from our self-sufficient, do-it-ourselves lifestyle. Judgment of God is always for cleansing. Falling upon our faces in true repentance and crying out to God are often brought about through the severe disappointments of the devastating failure of a crumbling life under cleansing judgment of God. If everything kept on working well for us in our less-than-holy living, we would not be searching for change. (more…)